OK, I need to �fess something here, while I am supposedly taking a small lunch break and because I haven�t been able to get it off of my mind all morning�

I have the nagging feeling that I am pregnant.

Don�t worry. I am also 90% sure that I am simply in panic-mode.

You see, I really couldn�t have picked a worse time to have a one-night stand than I picked the other night. I was in prime ovulation mode at the time. In fact, the ill-timing of the act was very much present in my mind during the act itself.

This is the debate which has been going through my mind for about a week now:

Stop worrying - we used condoms.

Nothing�s perfect. And I�ve never relied solely on a condom for birth control before, so it�s making me nervous.

You�re thirty-seven years old. If you wanted to get pregnant, it may prove a bit more difficult than you are comfortable admitting.

Jesus � it�s not like I�m freakin� menopausal! I�ve got a few eggs left!

Your period is due to arrive on Wednesday. Would you please relax until then?

Well, I�ll try�but that would be so unlike me.

The thing is�it�s not just the ill-timing of my sexual wantonness that is alarming me. There are other things going on in my body, too�for instance, the fact that I can�t seem to give it enough food. Granted, this happens to me periodically�but seriously, not like it has been this past week. And my eating binges usually last two days, maximum.

OK, I�ll stop obsessing, for now�but if I don�t start my period on Wednesday, you�re all bound to hear a whole lot more about this�for at least the next nine months anyway.

~~~

Politics

I�m sure you all heard about this, but just in case you went skiing this weekend and avoided all news coverage (as I so often wish I would do):

FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY SAYS WAR IN IRAQ WAS PLANNED BEFORE 9/11

Last year, President Bush made the case for war in Iraq by saying that America needs to protect itself from terrorism in a post-9/11 world. Bush told the nation that "the dynamics have shifted since 11 years ago, because of what happened on September the 11th," adding, "No longer are we secure." Bush also assured the nation that use of force in Iraq was a last resort, saying, "A military option is my last choice, the last choice." However, new revelations from one of Bush's former cabinet members show that war plans were being developed long before the terrorist attacks.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill told 60 Minutes that regime change in Iraq was the main topic at the very first meeting of Bush's National Security Council - a full eight months before 9/11. O'Neill said, "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this.'"

Since this story broke, the administration has attempted to discredit O'Neill, claiming that "the treasury secretary is not in the position to have access to that kind of information." Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind, who has worked with O'Neill for a year on a book about the Bush White House, calls that allegation "simply wrong," adding, "[O'Neill] got every file from [CIA Director] George Tenet." Suskind has reviewed nearly 19,000 internal administration documents provided by O'Neil.

Read the Mis-Lead.

~~~

Bush Expects Taxpayers, Not Polluters,To Pay for Superfund

The Superfund account that pays for the cleanup of the nation's most contaminated sites is due to run out of money sometime this year. But President Bush has yet to ask Congress to reinstate the tax on polluters to fund the account.

Bush is the only president since the Superfund was created in 1980 not to ask Congress to reauthorize the tax on polluting industries.[1]

Once the Superfund trust fund runs out, taxpayers will have to cover the cost of cleaning up toxic sites created by industry. Past administrations have held that Superfund cleanups should be paid for by the polluters.

"I strongly believe that the funds used to pay for the program should be generated entirely through (taxes on industry), not the general Treasury," President Ronald Reagan said in requesting an extension of Superfund fees and taxes on industry in 1985.[2]

The Superfund program was designed to have polluters pick up the tab for cleaning up highly contaminated hazardous waste sites. If the source couldn't be determined or had gone out of business, the cleanup was to be paid for from a trust fund - financed by an excise tax on the oil and chemical industries and a small environmental income tax on other corporations. But those taxes expired in 1995, when the Republican-led Congress refused to renew them. Hence, the trust fund is now almost of money, according to Congress's investigative arm, the General Accounting Office. When it runs out, likely later this year, taxpayers will be left with the bill.[3]

According to the EPA, one of every four Americans lives within four miles of a Superfund site.[4]

"These sites represent the legacy of decades of neglect," Reagan said in 1985. "We, as a society, must address these serious health threats."

SOURCES:

[1] U.S. PIRG fact sheet.

[2] Reagan Statement on Proposed Superfund Reauthorization Legislation, Feb. 22, 1985.

[3] General Accounting Office report: "Superfund Program: Current Status and Future Fiscal Challenges," July 31, 2003.

[4] Ibid.

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~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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